Humans have been trying to find ways to calculate exactly how long they’ll live since time immemorial. We’re yet to find a reliable predictive formula, but that’s starting to change.

The science: Certain chemical changes to cytosine – one of the four DNA bases or “letters” of genetic code—can help tell whether someone’s body is aging unusually fast or slowly. Steve Horvath, a biostatistician at UCLA, tested this “epigenetic clock” theory on 13,000 blood samples collected decades ago, from people whose subsequent date of death was known. The results found that the clock can be used to predict how long someone will live and how much of that life will be free of age-related disease.

Inheritance: Your genes dictate about 40% of the “ticking rate” of your mortality clock, while the rest comes down to lifestyle and luck, according to Horvath. There are things we can do to delay aging —including getting enough sleep.

Pharnext – This biopharmaceutical company has an interesting approach to find a cure for rare conditions that do not currently have a cure or treatment.

Pharnext is an advanced clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company founded in April 2007 by renowned scientists and entrepreneurs including Professor Daniel Cohen and collaborators, pioneers in modern genomics. The company develops new therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases – orphan and common – where there are currently no cures and existing therapies available.